Clinton Takes Kentucky

Hillary Clinton won the primary in Kentucky tonight, but her margin of victory (61-35 percent as of 8 pm ET) was significantly less than her margin of victory in West Virginia last week. The real question is whether it matters, given that even a poor showing by Barack Obama nonetheless means that he'll take the majority of the pledged delegates tonight.

The answer, though is: it probably doesn't matter. That Clinton was likely to lose the race for the Democratic nomination was mathematically clear at least a couple of weeks ago. She's known for a while that her best and then only chance of winning would come from an Obama campaign screw up, which hasn't truly materialized. A win in Kentucky isn't going to convince superdelegates to switch camps or pledged delegates to ignore the candidate for whom they were elected to vote. That said, she'll likely soldier on through the DNC rules committee meeting on May 31st and even the last primaries in Puerto Rico, Montana and South Dakota to give every Democrat a chance to vote.

And, in the end, good for her. If Hillary Clinton has proved anything this primary season it is that a female candidate doesn't have to be the anti-establishment candidate. In fact, to many people, she represented the political establishment, and that's why she didn't garner their support. But contemplate that for just a moment—the woman candidate was considered a part of the establishment. That's an accomplishment in and of itself. Kentucky doesn't matter by comparison.